On May 4, 2009, an Israeli settler from the nearby Illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Derech Ha’avot located north of El'azar settlement southwest of Bethlehem city ran over an adjacent Palestinian land in an attempt to construct a new bypass road in the area. The settler razed almost ten dunums of land and damaged more than 150 dunums of lands in the vicinity when he drove his bulldozer over the lands crushing fruitful trees (almond trees, grapevines and other plants). The targeted lands, which are privately owned by several families from Al Khader village, are located in Abu Bkeir area, alongside the Israeli controlled bypass Road number 60.
The razed lands showed that the settler was trying to construct a new bypass road (0.65 km long) that will abridge the access way of the outpost's settlers to the Israeli bypass road number 60 instead of having to go around for 1.25 km.
Photo 1 & Photo 2: The razed liands in Al Khader Village
The Derech Ha'avot outpost or Netiv Ha'avot – Jabal Habun was established in February 2001. It is located in close parameters of El'azar settlement southwest of Bethlehem city. Today, the outpost has 9 permanent structures and 25 trailers inhabited by 56 Israeli settlers. (Source: ARIJ GIS Database, 2007). See map & photo of the outpost:
Photo 3: An Over View of Derech Ha’avot Outpost
Map 1: The projected Israeli road
Al Khader Village
The village is located 4.5 kilometers west of Bethlehem city with a population of 11,233 inhabitants, PCBS 2008. It may be accessed via Beit Jala or the Bethlehem-Hebron Road. Through the decades of Israeli occupation, more than 50% of the town's lands were confiscated to construct settlements and by-pass roads. Today, the town also faces the threat of the Segregation Wall that runs along the northern and western parts of Al-Khader town, and consequently will cut of areas of Al-Khader where the settlements where constructed and an additional cultivated land, which will be isolated behind the Segregation Wall denying the residents access to considerable areas (8400 Dunums (42% of the village total area), including agricultural lands (87%, 6000 Dunums of the total agricultural lands in the village). The southern area of Al-Khader village is also blocked by the continues expansion of Efrat settlement, by which the only available land available for Al-Khader to cope with future population growth are located at the western parts of the village where the residents will have to use their whatever remains of the agricultural lands for construction.
To Conclude
The Israeli building of the settlements and their outpost, bypass roads is illegal and violates the International law, rules, and conventions.
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Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention indicated that: Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, is a grave breach of the Convention.
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Oslo Agreement (The interim agreement of 1995), article1, item 2 and 4 clearly state (… the unity and integrity of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip shall be maintained and respected…). The ''Lateral Roads'', or what people call ''bypass roads'' -because they are meant to circumvent (i.e. bypass) Palestinian built up areas, are now disconnecting Palestinian communities from each other.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
